Silly sleeper (reprise)

Nathan has moved even farther from the head of his bed. I went in to kiss him the other night and couldn't find him in his bed at all. He was all snuggled up in what he calls his "nook"--a tiny space between his bed and bookshelf--with his head resting awkwardly on the books! (He rolled back onto the pillow before I came back with the camera, then onto the books again as I was leaving.) Silly boy.

Decoration Time

Bit by bit, we're getting ourselves ready for Christmas. Today we were visited by a ghost--not sure if he's from Christmas past, present, or future. Or tablecloth. Fortunate that his pants and socks coordinate, no?


Then we were treated to a fancy dance number--tree skirt, can-can skirt, so hard to distinguish!


We hope to have an actual tree to dress in the skirt later today.

Hope your preparation time is equally joyful!

Watch out, Burj Dubai!

Leaves

1..2..3..4..5..6..7..8..9..10..11..12..13..15..16..17..18..19....twenny! (Why stop at three when you know--mostly--how to count to twenny?)

Jump!

Then bury the boy!

Then bury the girl!

Fall is fun.

Three!

Yes, we have a newly-minted three-year-old in our house. It's pretty exciting. I mean, he's been telling us that he's a big boy for a while now, but now he has the numbers to back it up. We had a great day celebrating the occasion. Green eggs and oatmeal for breakfast.


For months (I exaggerate not.) Nathan had been requesting "a chocolate cake shaped like a green number N--with green frosting and the chocolate on the inside." So Mommy delivered.

And cozy new pj's and a cool new water bottle!


Quite a day! He spent most of the day jumping up and down. It's possible he was excited and enjoying himself...very possible. Happy birthday, sweet big boy Nathan!

Bath time!

No, we never get silly around here. Why do you ask?

Five

I neglected to mention that we celebrated a very significant birthday a couple of weeks ago. Count these candles!

We had some of Rachel's friends over for a party and made our own candy necklaces.
Her favorite presents included a long-coveted big-kid booster car seat and a cozy robe. (Note the adoring look she's giving the booster!)



How has it been five years? We love our Rachel Baby!

Trick or Treat

Jessie and the Pumpkin had a great day today! Lots of treats, lots of fun, lots of smiles!



(And, yes, they both changed hats midway through the day. Don't you always have alternate headwear for your costumes?

Gym suit

Rachel abhors her gym uniform, which she has to wear to school two days per week, because it is too plain and doesn't have any of her favorite colors. (Tales of truly awful gym uniforms, such as my gold polyester shorts and brown heather t-shirt, have failed to assuage her angst about the not-so-bad navy blue.) Tuesday and Thursday mornings are still quite painful, even though we have compromised with hair ribbons, drawn butterflies on the toes of her plain white socks, and promised that she can change the second she walks in the door after school. She refused the first few weeks to let me take a photo, but I managed to sneak one not too long ago. It's really not so bad, right? Sheer torture for poor Rachel.

A nose is a nose

I just love how little kids talk. Specifically, mine. I understand them perfectly, but it's so cute! (Admittedly, not everyone understands them so well. Must come from hours and hours of listening to them talk.) So I was trying to capture some of Nathan's phonic quirks while he still has them. Initial "s" sounds are tricky, so he uses substitutes--some of the same ones that Rachel used. Sn sounds like t ("Can I have a tack?" when he's hungry), sw sounds like fw ("Push me on the fwing!"), and, perhaps cutest of all, sm sounds like p. He frequently says a shirt is "gettin' a little paul for me" when the neck is tight. I was trying to cue him to answer with "sm" words and got some funny answers instead!

Sicko update

This cold just won't let go! And now it's got another victim.

Sick girl

This is what our week has looked like:

Poor kid. The part the photo doesn't capture is the intermittent moans of "I just don't feel good." Here's hoping she's on the mend soon!

Who is this boy?

And where did my baby go?

September changes

So this is how we started September, still thrilling with summer delights...


We saw summer out with a bang in Michigan as we did a little of this...

...and some of this.

Oh, and some of this. (David won; I just had to share our best-ever game.)

We saw this guy once when we were out for lunch...

(odd, right?) Natalie was intrigued.

And here we are, welcoming fall in all her glory. Happy autumn!

Garden bounty

Aside from our a-may-zing sunflowers, this was our garden's biggest treasure this summer--and we saved it from the squirrels! Some of our smallest treasures--cherry tomatoes, grapes, and herbs--were our tastiest, though. We had loads of fun with the garden this summer, and we definitely learned a lot. Nathan learned that pickles are made from cucumbers and has been pleading to "turn cucummahs into pickles" ever since, so we finally did. They look good--we'll see how they taste after a few weeks!

Big news

Short post, big news. We are a four-undies family! Woo-hoo!

Silly sleeper

David jokes that the last couple of feet on my side of the bed are underutilized real estate and frequently threatens to store things there. I thought this would be even more true in little Nathan's bed, but he has proven me wrong! Way to use every bit of bed, Nathan!

Gardening

An update on our gardening attire and tools...

Nathan is very keen to wear the appropriate protective garments when gardening. Here he sports my apron for watering a bucket. Yes, his idea of helping me water the garden is filling his watering can repeatedly from the rain barrel and emptying it into a large bucket. This, as you can imagine, poses great danger to clothing, hence the apron. (Really, it was because Rachel wanted to wear an apron to help her carry her harvest (grapes) like Laura and Mary did when they were helping Ma. Rachel had an apron, so Nathan had an apron.)


And we decided that we need a wheelbarrow for carting things around our vast estate. Good ones are a little spendy, though, and after all, why else did we have children?

Bedtime Story

We had a visit from Grandpa the other night. Nathan asked Grandpa to read his bedtime story, then proceeded to recite most of it himself. I don't think Grandpa minded!

Cousin Love

I don't think I've mentioned lately how much Rachel and Natalie adore each other. Whenever they're together, there is much gazing and hugging and big sloppy kissing. This photo is from a couple of weeks ago at the zoo, but we saw Baby Cousin again yesterday and delighted in how much she has grown. We brought her our beloved Scoots McGoo, and she never even looked at it, for that would have required taking eyes off her dear Rachel. To her credit, Rachel rises to the occasion and plays her role remarkably well. The adoration is quite mutual!

Toes

Thanks, Aunt Jen, for macho-ifying Nathan's toes! No more pink for him--green is much more manly!

Exhibit A

In my argument for why Nathan should not give up his nap just yet...

Fountain play

Remember this?

Nathan has developed his own iconic pose for playing in the fountain...